Watch out, Shrek, Nemo and all of you other Tinseltown CGI creatures!
Europeans now do their own computer animation! Back To Gaya
directed by German duo Holger Tappe and Lenard F. Krawinkel was the
first fully computer generated film to come from Germany. Okay, a bunch
of other companies from around Europe helped out as well and considering
the slim budget (compared to its Hollywood equivalents) the film came
out surprisingly well. Sure, the visuals may look like an overlong
cut-scene from some weird video game while the story follows typical
animation clichés and has some stereotypical heroes but at least the
makers worked some fun ideas into the film: The adventures of Boo and
Zino is a successful fantasy series for kids but an evil professor wants
to destroy the colourful series. He has build a device that can
transport anything from the TV world into our reality and zaps Boo, Zino,
the Snurks and princess Alanta into our world where they are far away
from their fluffy fantasy home Gaya. Sadly, with Dreamworks and Pixar productions already being
light years ahead in terms of technology at the time, Back To Gaya
tanked terribly even at European box office. Executives were changing
the international title to a rather weak Boo, Zino & The Snurks,
in the hope that US audiences would not recognize the title and watch
the film out of pure curiosity. As always, such panic reactions do not
work out as planned and the first euro-animation was as quickly
forgotten as it came.

The score:

(Please NOTE: No score release
of any kind exists of Back To Gaya, so this review is based on
the score as heard in the film. The above cover art is entirely
fan-fictional and was added for promotional purposes only!)

Directors Tappe and Krawinkel are both
devoted fans of composer Michael Kamen. Thanks to their British
co-producer Jeremy Thomas, they were able to contact Kamen who became
interested in the project and wanted to view a work-print of the picture
which was heavily temp-tracked with existing music. Kamen reportedly
hated what was used but the directors changed the temp-track by using
only pieces composed by Kamen who was naturally impressed with that
little favour and agreed to compose the score. Disaster stroke when the
composer suddenly died of a heart attack in November 2003 which put the
entire project in jeopardy because he was not able to finish the score.
Based on sketches that Kamen finished before his death, his
orchestrators and arrangers Robert Elhai, Brad Warnaar, Julian Kershaw,
Jeff Toyne, Rubert Christie, Jonathan Sacks, Blake Neely and Ian
MacPhearson were called in to finish the score while Ilan Eshkeri
provided additional music where necessary. Then, in January 2004, the
finished music was recorded at Abbey Road Studios performed by the
London Metropolitan Orchestra under the baton of Andy Brown. Those
involved with the music agreed that Kamen's last work was also one of
his finest efforts and the music was performed live at the film's
premiere in Hannover as a special tribute to the late composer who
passed away way too early. Oddly, his outstanding music for Back To
Gaya remains entirely unreleased to this day and date.

Even though Michael Kamen's
orchestrators had to finish the score, you will not notice that at all
which indicates that Kamen probably finished a good chunk of material
before the tragic twist of events in November 2003. His musical voice,
trademarks and craftsmanship are shining through every single note of
music, from the memorable opening sky-high main theme (featured in the
suite - see below) with its emphasis on horns that will bring back
memories of Kamen's theme for Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves
(1994) to even the smallest bits of underscore. Words like 'rousing' and
'thrilling' can barely give a vague idea of how brilliant the
action-adventure parts of this score are and this music is one of the
rare occasions where a comparison to John Williams' is probably fully
appropriate. Another horn-driven secondary flying-theme follows when the
main characters Boo and Zino take flight to Gaya-city. This theme is
just as excellent as the main theme and develops into a trhilling
orchestral ride for the aerial journey with a pompous fanfare finale as
Gaya-City its magic stone, the Dalamite, appears (featured in the suite
- see below).

A big race in best Star Wars
fashion follows in the film with a beautiful build-up to the first
statement of the score's heroic theme for Zino. As the race begins and
Zino takes off, Kamen thrills us into an amazing action passage that
changes between dark pounding tones for the evil Snurks,
tension-building frenetic strings and broad symphonic fanfares spiced
with an incredible debth in orchestration. The entire race-cue alone
makes this score a highlight in Kamen's career and functions as a nice
summary of themes. A short statement of the romantic theme for princess
Alanta is also included and the heroic theme receives a full outburst as
Boo and Zino turbo boost to the pole position. A Creepy and dark motif
accompanies the introduction of the evil professor N. Icely who is
planning to destroy the series by stealing the Dalamite. The music rises
to a dark apocalyptic scale as the professor activates his
transportation device to rob the stone and menacing, pounding timpani
follows our main characters as they are sucked through the dimension
gate into our world.

While Boo and Zino arrive at a
backyard, the Snurks arrive in a little boy's room who is having fun
while hunting the bad gnomes with a baseball bat and Kamen responds to
the chase with some quirky gnomish chase music. All that great musical
material already comes within the first 20 minutes into the picture
which shows how rich the score is. The flying-theme returns as Boo and
Zino enter a house that is suddenly being demolished and both have to
escape the giant demolition ball. Alanta arrived in a toy store and is
playing around and raving on being a big hero which is accompanied some
gentle and elegant waltzy material based on the romantic theme which
develops into uplifting heroic tones with a little mickey-mousing as
Alanta performs a wire-stunt (featured in the suite - see below). As Boo
and Zino are trying to rescue Alanta from nasty rats in the sewers, a
heroic variation on Alanta's romantic theme follows as she fights the
rats with Kung-Fu. Screaming brass and a dark statement of the heroic
theme suddenly bursts out when they meet a hungry crocodile in the
sewers. The action motives from the race are powerfully reprised for the
big finale fight between the professor and the heroes before a bright
reprise of the Gaya-City material is featured when the heroes are back
in gaya.

RATING:

Score as
heard in the film:
93%

Score as
heard on CD:n/a

TOTAL:
93%

The presentation:

Well, what can I possibly say about a
presentation that is non-existent? One would think that a film like
Back To Gaya would generate some kind of soundtrack release but
there is not even a song-compilation out there which is very odd because
the film utilized several songs including "No Small Wonder" composed by
Kamen himself. Early rumours mentioned the possibility of a score
release but the idea must have been dropped which is an indication for
the total money loss that the film was. Maybe the people in charge did
not want to spend any more money on this turkey by putting out a CD.
Really, really sad because the score was recorded in London and would
have been relatively cheap to release without any re-use fees worries.
Now, all hope lies on US film music labels like Intrada, Varese or
Perseverance who could probably make an overdue release of the score
possible.

Presentation by
the Label:n/a

Summary:

Michael Kamen's last score is also one
of his best. The music is so rich and colourful with striking action
music, rousing heroic moments and high flying themes. Kamen's trademarks
shine through during the entire composition which makes cues like the
race or the final fight some really outstanding musical moments. The
depth of the orchestrations is remarkable and the London Metropolitan
Orchestra gives it a vibrant and absolutely superb standout performance.
After hearing this score, Kamen's early death becomes even more sad
because Back To Gaya shows that he just arrived at the peak of musical
brilliance when he had to leave our world and only god knows what more
he could have done with his amazing skills and craftsmanship. The
absence of a score release is a scandal to put it mildly and I can only
hope that this last Michael Kamen masterpiece will be released on CD for
all fans of great animation scores to enjoy because Back To Gaya
clearly is one of the finest. With the present situation, I can only
recommend you to watch the movie, if not for the flick itself then for
the music. I guarantee that you won't regret it!

Review by Andreas Creutzburg

Tracklisting:

Since there is no
score release, there can't be a tracklisting. However, for my
dear readers, I have created a little suite of score moments
from the film that are not drown in heavy sfx to give you an
imagination of Kamen's last masterpiece. It starts with the
opening titles and the main theme, then goes into a short
statement of the
heroic theme, then fades
right into the introduction of Gaya-City and ends with the
elegant waltzy mickey-mousing for Alanta's mirror heroics:

This clip was
created and posted
entirely for promotional and non-commercial reasons! If, for
whatever reasons, someone out there feels violated in his (copy)rights
due to this lousy clip of barely 3 minutes, then please feel
free to let me know before you send out the suits.